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Deparliamentarization in Turkey: a Major Decline in the Scrutiny Function

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Deparliamentarization in Turkey: a Major Decline in the Scrutiny Function International Journal of Political Science & Urban Studies • Uluslararası Siyaset Bilimi ve Kentsel Araştırmalar Dergisi Cilt 7, Sayı 1, Mart 2019, ISSN 2630-6263, ss. 168-190 • DOI: 10.14782/ipsus.539212 Deparliamentarization in Turkey: A Major Decline in the Scrutiny Function Türkiye’de Parlamentonun Güç Yitirmesi: Denetim İşlevinde Büyük Gerileme * Mehmet KABASAKAL1 Abstract In parliamentary democracies, governments are formed through parliamentary elections, and both the cabinet and budget must receive the confidence of the legislature. The “golden age”, when parliaments make laws without any pressure from the executives and have strong control over cabinets, ended by 20th century. For the last few decades, however, legislative studies have been pointing to a shift in the balance of power from the legislative to the executive branch in many countries. The declining power of parliaments is explained by many factors. Scholars who studied “declining parliaments” generally agree on the commonly accepted contributing factors for deparliamentarization. These factors are “constitutional arrangements, increasing global regulations, the complexity of issues and technical- focus in policy making, disciplinary party structures, the lack of intra-party democracy, the domination of parties by their leaders, and electoral systems.” Although a trend of deparliamentarization has been noted, mainly in parliamentary democracies, the decline of parliaments has not been as glaring and forbidding everywhere. Thus, the variation, especially among similar democratic systems, calls for a closer analysis of country cases. This study examines Turkey, and discusses the changes regarding the power balance between the executive and legislative branches of government by identifying the pattern of changes in constitutions and country’s electoral system, and party structures which tend to stress party discipline and maintain leaders’ control. The paper analyzes the politics of Turkey between 1946 and 2014 especially by focusing on the AKP rule after 2002. The power shift in Turkey has been from parliamentary supremacy to a very strong executive, and deparliamentarization has been particularly rapid and profound since the 1980s,. In 2017, a change in the constitution allowed a transition to a presidential system and the new system is legalized by the constitutional amendments. The paper concludes with the analysis that there is a significant decline in the power of the parliament in Turkey, after 1980s, mainly in its scrutiny function. The longitudinal study of changes shows that deparliamentarization, or the increase in the power of the executive, was caused by multiple domestic and international factors that occurred simultaneously and reinforced each other’s impact. The significant difference of Turkey from the other world cases are rapid constitutional changes, increasing leader authority within the parties, and existence of dominant party system in Turkey since 15 years. * Dr., Istanbul Okan University, Faculty of Business and Administrative Sciences, International Relations Department, [email protected], Orcid: 0000-0002-1097-6467 Makale Gönderim Tarihi: 26.05.2018 168 Yayına Kabul Tarihi: 20.01.2019 Deparliamentarization in Turkey: A Major Decline in the Scrutiny Function Keywords: Functions of parliament, declining parliaments, separation of powers, check and balance, powerful executive, leader dominance, parliamentary scrutiny Öz Parlamenter demokrasilerde hükümetler genel seçimlerle oluşan meclislerde şekillenir. Kabinenin kurulup icraata başlayabilmesi için daha başlangıçta meclisten güvenoyu alması gerekir, ayrıca, her yıl ulusal bütçesini meclise sunarak onaylatmak zorundadır. Parlamentoların yürütmenin herhangi bir baskısı olmadan yasa yaptıkları ve hükümetler üzerinde güçlü denetim kurdukları altın çağ” 20. yüzyılda sona ermiştir. Son 30-40 yılda parlamentolar üzerine yapılan çalışmalar, birçok ülkede güçler arasındaki dengenin bozulduğuna ve yasamadan yürütmeye güç kayması olduğuna işaret etmektedir. Parlamentoların güç yitirmesi birçok nedenle açıklanmaktadır. Yasama organlarının güç kaybının nedenleri üzerinde çalışan akademisyenler, yaygın kabul gören bazı etkenler konusunda görüş birliği içindedirler. Bu etkenler, kısaca anayasa değişiklikleri, küresel düzenlemeler, yasama gündemindeki konuların giderek karmaşıklaşması ve politika oluşturmanın gittikçe daha teknik bir hal alması, parti disiplini, parti içi demokrasinin yokluğu ve lider hegemonyası ile seçim sistemi olarak ifade edilmektedir. Yasamanın güç kaybı, esas olarak parlamenter demokrasilerde görülmektedir, ancak bu güç azalması her ülkede aynı oranda ve biçimde değildir. Benzer demokratik sistemlerde bile görülen farklılıklar, ülke bazında ayrıntılı incelemeleri zorunlu kılmaktadır. Bu çalışma Türkiye örneğinde yasama ve yürütme arasındaki güç dengesini, anayasal değişiklikler, ülkenin seçim sistemi, parti disiplinini etkileyen ve liderin denetimini pekiştiren parti yapıları açısından incelemektedir. Çalışma, 1946 ile 2014 arasındaki dönemi ele almakla birlikte özellikle 2002 sonrası AKP iktidarı dönemine yoğunlaşmaktadır. Türkiye’de meclis üstünlüğünden güçlü yürütmeye geçiş 1980 sonrasında daha hızlı ve yoğun olmuştur. 2017’deki referandumla yapılan anayasa değişiklikleri ile de Türkiye’ye özgü başkanlık sistemi yasallık kazanmıştır. Bu yazı sonuç olarak, Türkiye’de parlamentonun önemli ölçüde güç yitirdiğini, bu kaybın da özellikle 1980 sonrasında gerçekleştiğini ortaya koyan betimleyici- tanımlayıcı bir çalışmadır. Parlamentoların güç kaybına veya yürütmenin gücünü artırmasına neden olan değişikliklerin ayrıntılı incelenmesi, bu süreçte birçok yerel ve uluslararası etkenin aynı zamanda birbiriyle etkileşim içinde rol oynadığını göstermiştir. TBMM de dünyada birçok parlamentoda gözlenen güç kaybını özellikle denetleme işleviyle ilgili olarak yaşamıştır. Türkiye’de güç kaybına neden olan etkenler, bu ülkelerden bazı niceliksel farklılıklar göstermektedir. Türkiye’de öne çıkan etkenler, sık sık anayasa değişiklikleri yapılması, partilerde lider otoritesinin son yıllarda giderek artması ve 15 yıldır Türk siyasal yaşamında pekişmeye başlayan “hakim parti” sistemidir. Anahtar sözcükler: Parlamentonun işlevi, parlamentonun güç yitirmesi, güçler ayrımı, denetim ve denge sistemi, güçlü yürütme, lider hegemonyası, meclis denetimi Introduction In parliamentary democracies, governments are formed through parliamentary elections, and both the cabinet and budget must receive the confidence of the legislature. Representing the popular will, elected legislatures are the main and indispensable institutions of democratic systems (Dahl, 1971, p. 3-20; Diamond, Linz, and Lipset, 1995, p. 6-7; Schmitter and Karl, 1991, p. 75-88; Uluşahin, 2016, p. 39-66). The “golden age” when parliaments made laws without any pressure from the executives and had strong control over cabinets, ended by the 20th century. Recently, their representation functions were questioned by the scholars who focus on the civic society and participative democracy (Adams, 1970; Beetham and Boyle, 2005; Diamond, 1999, p.1-18; Gallagher, 2014, p.11-27; Hirst, 1990, p. 22-37; Hooghe; 2014, p.58-74; LeDuc, Niemi and Norris, 2014, p.1-10; Offe, 1996, p.94; Schmitt, 1988 and 2006; Sunar, 2010, p.16-19). Offe (1996, 169 Mehmet KABASAKAL p. 94) also pointed out that “In the long history of incisive literature on the subject, numerous flattering assumptions have been made about the qualities of legislative representative bodies, specifically with regard to their rationality, reasonableness, maturity, knowledge of the material, impartiality, collective intelligence, and capacity for judgement.” Although Offe suggests that there is no alternative to liberal democracy, “the will of the people” exhibits some problematic features: it is fictitious, fallible, and seducible (p.90-91). The procedures that are used to arrive at the will of the people become “the will of those in political office”. In addition to the problem of representation, for the last few decades, students of democracy and legislative studies have been pointing to a shift in the balance of power from the legislative to the executive branch in many countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Australia and Canada (Crimmins and Nesbitt-Larking, 1996; Haynes, 2005; Liebert and Cotta, 1990, p. 8-13). Referred to as “declining parliaments” or “deparliamentarization,” this trend is noted to be most profound in parliamentary democracies (Baldwin, 2004 and 2006; Blondel, 1973; Bryce, 1921; Elgie and Stapleton, 2006; Loewenberg, 1971; Olson and Norton, 1996; Norton, 1998; Raunio and Wiberg, 2008). There were not any previous studies about “declining parliaments” or “deparliamentarization,” in Turkey. The only study that examined the trend of deparliamentarization in Turkey mainly focused on the indicators of deparliamentarization in Turkey for the 1946-2014 period (Kabasakal, 2018). In this paper I examine the factors that caused or facilitated that trend, by analyzing their effect on different functions of the parliament. I show that the power of the parliament has been declining gradually, though not always in a smooth linear pattern. The decline has been more profound since 1980 and gaining momentum during the last decade. More recent studies about the existence of dominant party system (Ayan-Musil, 2014; Canan Aslan-Akman, 2012; Çarkoğlu, 2011; Gumuscu, 2012) also emphasized the decline of parliaments in Turkey. Turkey has failed to
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